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Friday, 26 October 2018

CVC Chaudhry orders massive changes in CBI (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical Notes From India

M D Nalapat

CHIEF Minister Narendra D Modi of Gujarat made several promises to
the electorate, of which two are haunting and being remembered each day
by voters. The first was that Rs 15 lakhs would be deposited in the bank
accounts of every citizen of India after Modi (once made Prime
Minister) would get back an estimated $ 1.2 trillion of illicit cash
deposited by citizens of India in banking havens. The other was a
related vow that he would ensure that corruption was eliminated in the
functioning of government. Although Modi had more than a year to prepare
for what he would do in the event he became PM, the team of officials
that he chose was almost the same as that which had clustered around
Prime Ministers Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. Several of them were
themselves regarded as being less than honest, while overall, the record
of both Vajpayee as well as Manmohan Singh in fighting corruption was
disappointing, although it must be said that in the case of the latter,
at least three Union Cabinet Ministers were forced to quit when they
came under scanner with allegations of corruption, while a Cabinet
minister (Andimuthu Raja) went to jail during that period.
Thus far, Prime Minister Modi has had no success in sending even a
single senior minister of the period of complete Sonia Gandhi rule
(2004-2014) to prison. Indeed, several of those who had been facing
charges under Manmohan Singh have had the relief of these charges being
dismissed by either the courts or the investigating agencies. Every few
days, reports get carried in the media about investigations” and raids
by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate
(ED) and the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on miscellaneous
individuals, but little appears to have been done in the way of follow
up. The primary “corruption fighter” of the Government of India is the
Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). During this official’s tenure in
the Income-tax department, there was raid after raid on High Net Worth
individuals, creating much gossip about how those raided dealt with
situation in private.
CVC Chaudhry is clearly an individual who works night and day, for he
took the extraordinary step of forcing the Director of the premier
anti-corruption investigating agency (CBI ) to go on leave, replacing
him with Nageshwar Rao, a relatively junior officer with a reputation
that is not entirely saintly. The change took place at 1am on Wednesday.
The new boss took charge after instructions were reported in the media
to have been given by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, whose remit
does not usually cover the CBI. The involvement of Doval made it
possible for opposition leaders to place the blame for the early morning
shakeout at the doorsteps of Prime Minister Modi, as Doval is the
official closest to the PM just as Arun Jaitley is the minister closest
to Modi. However, it is likely that it was not the PM but the CVC who
asked for his assistance in enforcing an unprecedented decision with
grave implications for the anti-corruption battle in the country.
In these days of social media, it is child’s play for frustrated
officials to leak information through the internet, and now that he has
been appointed Director of the CBI, every hour titbits are billowing out
about Rao. The CVC earlier worked in close proximity with two Sonia-era
Finance Ministers ( P Chidambaram and P Mukherjee), but it would be
unfair to suggest that the decision he took to send the now ex-CBI
Director on forced leave was motivated by anything other than what he
saw as an administrative necessity. However, the move has had the
unintended consequence of diluting the image of the Modi government in
the matter of probity, and has given opposition parties an effective
whip with which to flog even the Prime Minister relentlessly. The CBI
Director had anyway only a few more days left in his tenure. In a
earlier case of another CBI chief,Ranjit Sinha, the Modi government
allowed him to finish his term of office rather than cut it short soon
after the new PM was sworn in on May 26, 2014. Judging by the alacrity
with which incoming CBI Director Rao removed each of the officers
investigating Rakesh Asthana, the deputy chief of the CBI, who has been
accused by ex-Director Alok Verma of corruption, it is clear that the
new boss is no fan of his predecessor. Interestingly, although Asthana
also has been sent on leave, none of the team of officers around him has
been affected by the change in Director. A few days ago, it was being
mentioned within CBI headquarters that Asthana would soon be in prison.
Instead, it would seem that the CVC has ensured the premature ( by a few
days) exit of his nemesis,Alok Verma as also the early morning transfer
of key officers working on the corruption case against Asthana. The
lead investigator has been sent as far away as Port Blair in the Andaman
islands, the furthest point barring the waters of the Indian Ocean
where the unfortunate officer could have been moved.
Unlike others who accept decisions taken at the top stoically, ex-CBI
Director Alok Verma has filed a complaint before the Supreme Court of
India asking for the orders of forced leave be rescinded as illegal. The
Supreme Court is now headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who has a
reputation for both integrity as well as independence. Verma has,in true
bureaucratic tradition, kept away from the public much of the details
of hid complaint against the Government of India. The opposition has
even brought in defense and other deals to claim that Verma was hastily
moved out of his cabin to stop him from investigating them. Prime
Minister Modi will need to convince the people of India that he has
delivered on his promise of clean government and the creation of jobs on
a scale sufficient to ensure that young people find work. The
allegations against the CVC may be motivated and Chowdhary may be a
paragon of virtue, as also the other dramatis personae in the drama
being played out on television screens about the heart of the
anti-corruption machinery of the Modi government.
But his 1am decision has had the effect of casting a shadow over the
Government of India that is unlikely to dissipate in a hurry. Had he
consulted Prime Minister Modi before taking the decision he did, perhaps
the present ruckus may have been avoided. The Prime Minister is known
to be cautious, but he needs to warn the officers closest to him not to
be present at controversial venues such as the never before witnessed
sending on leave of the CBI Director and the immediate transfer of the
entire team of officers investigating Asthana. Why the new CBI Director
took such a step is a mystery. An immediate explanation is needed, as
opposition politicians have several times made the charge that the
former deputy chief of the CBI is a favourite of the PM. Admirers of
Narendra Modi are clear that while the PM may be polite to officials, he
has no favourites.

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About Prof. M. D. Nalapat

Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat (aka MD Nalapat or Monu Nalapat), holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and is Director of the Department of Geopolitics at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. The former Coordinating Editor of the Times of India, he writes extensively on security, policy and international affairs. Prof. Nalapat has no formal role in government, although he is said to influence policy at the highest levels. @MD_Nalapat

MD Nalapat's anthology 'Indutva' (1999)

In 1999, Har-Anand published Indutva an anthology of MD Nalapat's 1990s columns from the Times of India. The individual columns are posted here, in 1998 and 1999 of the blog archive, though the exact dates of publication are uncertain.